


Descent

by AniOriginals (AniPendragon)



Series: The Metahuman Initiative [1]
Category: Original Work, The Metahuman Initiative
Genre: Action, Adventure, Anxiety, Blood and Injury, Disability, Drama, Friendship, Grey Morailty, LGBTQ Character, Mental Health Issues, Modern Setting, Mysteries, Non-binary character, Original Universe, Other, Queer Character, Romance, Science Fiction, Secrets, Slow Burn, Superheroes/Superpowers, Trans Character, Trauma, Trauma Recovery, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-20 11:37:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13716885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniPendragon/pseuds/AniOriginals
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Nat Carter has spent their entire life running: from the law, from the consequences, and from the past. But, one night in the Alaskan wilderness, Nat's luck runs out, and they end up captured, powerless, and en route to Veda City, British Columbia, the world's home to metahumans. There, Nat's entire world is changed, as they go from stealing food to survive to struggling to understand math homework.But Nat's arrival in Veda City is just the beginning. Powerful figures move in the shadows, readjusting their plans as Nat falls into their world. From a ghost man to a lightning woman, and figures in the skies and sewers. And why wouldn't they be? One of the most powerful metahumans in the world hog-tied, powerless, and trapped in the maze of the world's most advanced and most dangerous city? It's the perfect storm.For Nat, this is a nightmare. For others, it's a dream. But Nat isn't defenseless. They've survived this long, and they won't be taken out. As Nat tries to keep afloat, they start to uncover the truth behind Veda City, and the truth behind why they were brought here.But this is only the beginning. And Nat has a long way to go before they even begin to understand this city.





	1. Arrival in Veda City

**Author's Note:**

> **Dedication**  
>  To Ling, to Scarlet, to Fandom, to Lydia, and to Gabby, whose unending enthusiasm and curiosity kept me going when I thought no one would care about this story.
> 
> To Megrim, whose unending questions and late night discussions allowed me to fix errors, especially once I started giving you spoilers because I needed to fix it all anyway.
> 
> To Cole, who's been my writing buddy from the start, and who pushed me to keep writing, keep going, keep believing, and who loves these characters almost as much as I do, something I never thought possible.
> 
> To Shiv, my best friend and partner in crime, who has listened to me talk about this story for the last eight god damn years and has watched me write it and rewrite it verbally over and over again.
> 
> And to Ashley, who got me back into writing original works when I thought I never would.
> 
> And to you, all of you, who are reading this, who listened to me, who sent me asks, who kudos and comment and read.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Welcome to _The Metahuman Initiative_ , the beginning of a story, and a series, I've been working on and writing since early 2010, although its inspirations go back as far as late 2007. This series is as close to my heart as something can possibly be, and I have written it, rewritten it, and reworked it over and over again to make it into something I can be proud of. As someone who by and large writes fanfiction, this is a bit of a change for me. While I've always wanted to write this series, I was never quite sure how, and I worried that it would be terrible, or that I wouldn't do it justice, or that no one would want to read it.
> 
> Now, I've managed to let go of those fears. One of my goals in 2018 was to stop worrying so much about what other people thought and to stop focusing on being perfect. So, maybe this version of _Descent_ isn't as polished as it could be. Maybe it's a little rougher, and it'll take a little less time because of that. But it's here, and I love it, and I know where I'm going. I have an entire world just ready to go, and I need to take a breath and just _write_.
> 
> From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely hope that all of you enjoy this story as much as I've enjoyed creating the world around it, and I can only hope that you all become at least partially excited to see the rest of the world. This is only the beginning, and we've got a long way to go.
> 
> Cheers, everyone, and welcome, finally, to TMI!
> 
>   
> 

_"Gradually, then suddenly." - Ernest Hemingway_

Outside, beyond the windows of the truck – if it could even be called that, due to how armoured it was –  the landscape of British Columbia rolled by, slowly shifting from forests and rocky terrain to the lower, rolling hills and scattered houses of the outskirts of a city. Civilization, even scattered as it was here, was still a marked change from the world Nat Carter, one of the two occupants of the back of the truck, had spent the last while in.

"Carter?" came a soft, low voice. Mera Elion, the other occupant of the back of the van, sat facing Nat, the bench seats the only seating in the back, with her dark hands clasped together above her slightly parted knees. Her loose, voluminous hair, almost an afro, had started to frizz in the humidity of the late September weather, caused by the ocean that lingered but a few kilometres to their right, and it framed her dark face and darker eyes as she watched Nat with mild curiosity.

Nat, their skin a few shades lighter than Mera's but not terribly light, slouched, half turned on the bench seat, with their freckle splattered and bruise painted cheek pressed against the cool, condensation covered window, said nothing. They scowled, their short, dark brown hair mostly slicked back but enough hanging in their dark brown eyes to hide how bloodshot they were. Although, said bangs were not long enough to hide the bruise-like marks beneath those eyes, nor the scowl that cut across their face. Which was made worse by the split in their lower lip and the cut that would most likely scar on their left cheek. It ran across the outside of their left eyebrow and reached from beneath their left eye to just above their mouth.

"Carter, we're almost there," said Mera, tilting her head to one side. She wore a purple dress, the most colour in the back of the truck. Nat wore a baggy grey hoodie and black pants a size too big, their sneakers were held together by worn and dirty duct tape, and their jacket was brown-ish grey, barely warm enough for the fall weather that was fast approaching in British Columbia, let alone suitable for the weather they'd left behind, only a few days prior, in southern Alaska.

Still, Nat did not speak, even as Mera gave a put-upon sigh that was no doubt supposed to drive them to speaking.

In the driver's compartment of the truck, separated by a steel wall, the driver and the armed guard that had been sent to retrieve Nat remained blissfully unaware of the turmoil in the back of their vehicle. Not that Nat thought they'd care, even if they did know. After all, they thought, fingers grazing the metal collar that pressed against their throat, and then brushing the metal bands that pressed into each wrist, with their powers locked down, their injuries attacking their body's strength, and a woman with a button that could shoot sedative into Nat at any second sitting two feet from them, what did the driver and guard have to worry about?

All they needed to do was to remember to uncuff Nat's wrists and feet from the chain that held them to the floor of the truck, before they got out. That would still leave their hands cuffed together and their feet cuffed together, independently, to slow them down. As long as they took shifts guarding Nat's room wherever they were staying, kept Nat sedated in their sleep so they couldn't wake up and sneak off, and made sure the collar and cuffs stayed on to keep Nat's metahuman powers locked away, what else did they have to worry about?

All Nat was to them was a prisoner, plain and simple. They didn't know why Mera kept talking to them, kept trying to get them to say something, kept trying to give Nat something as stupid as _hope._

It wasn't as if Nat didn't know what awaited them at their final destination of Veda City: prison. They'd heard the guards talking. Heard the police, the RCMP, and MERCY – the group that had finally captured them like a wild animal – talking throughout the last week.

They were an animal, the police said. A monster, the RCMP claimed. A metahuman who couldn't be trusted to control their own powers, MERCY said. Something needed to be done. Something to get them away from the general public. And on and on and on.

After a while, Nat had stopped listening in when they spoke. Not as if there was much of a point, all things considered.

It wasn't as if Nat actually had a choice with anything that happened once they arrived in Veda City. Wherever they were put, Nat would be kept under lock and key, trapped away from anything that would allow them to fight off whatever came after. No powers; no freedom; no life.

They might as well have just put a bullet between Nat's eyes, for all the difference it would make.

"When we arrive in Veda, people will want to talk to you," said Mera, her hands folded in her lap, resting near her knees. "We have a meta specialist coming to take a look at your ability, a child psychologist and a psychiatrist coming to take a look at your mental health and administer a few tests, and a pediatrician coming to take a look at your overall physical health and well-being." Mera waited, expecting Nat to respond, but they still said nothing, instead simply staring at their cuffed hands, which they rested in their own lap. Mera sighed. "You'll need to talk to them. Or communicate in some way." Another pause. "Please, Carter," said Mera, her voice soft and concerned, "if you do what they say and answer their questions, this will go a lot easier for you. We just want to help."

Nat snorted. "That's likely." The words slipped out before they could stop them, and both they and Mera started at the noise.

Mera gave a small smile, her eyes twinkling with something Nat couldn't quite place, but figured was probably demeaning in one way or another. "Well, it's nice to finally hear your voice."

Nat rolled their eyes. Sure it was. Mera was just buttering them up for whatever came next. Prison, death, or something worse. Something that never ended.

A buzz rolled through the back of the van and Nat twitched. Mera didn't seem to notice the buzzing, only the twitch. She frowned at Nat, who scowled in return, dropping their gaze to their cuffs. The buzzing continued, low and insistent, in the back of Nat's mind. It wasn't their powers, those were too far gone for Nat to grab hold of them. But it was something, nonetheless. They glanced up, gaze finding the thin slits of windows they could look out of.

The city looked back at them. Flashes of white and glass and stainless steel. Buildings that rose higher than mountains, disappearing beyond Nat's limited worldview. The palest smear of grey and blue on the otherwise dark sky - sunrise, as sunset looked different. A flash here and there of bright city lights.

The buzzing was the city _._ Impossible, but there all the same. The electricity of the city, so great and all-encompassing, had wrapped itself around Nat the moment they'd rode over the invisible barrier that seemed to separate Veda City from the outside world.

"Almost there," said Mera, still studying Nat, as if she wasn't sure what to think. Nat didn't think she did. No one really seemed to know what to think of them. All the arguments, long, terrified looks, and hushed conversations with fleeting glances told Nat as much. "Tell me, Carter, what do you think is going to happen to you once we stop?" She tilted her head, her hands clasped on one knee, which was crossed over her other leg. She watched Nat, as if expecting them to spill everything then and there.

"Well?" asked Mera. "You seem so sure this is going to go wrong."

Nat narrowed their eyes, studying Mera. There hadn't been any whispers of Mera being a metahuman when she'd arrived. But then, they'd still been trying to drug Nat with the regular sedatives, back then. Hadn't yet realized that those drugs were as useless as the warning electro-shocks in the cuffs. Powers or no powers, Nat was still immune to those things. They'd assumed they were still immune to psychics – the first one brought in, back in Alaska, certainly hadn't been able to do anything with them. But maybe Mera was something different. An empath or a body language reader. Even low levels, which Mera obviously was, if she could work so closely with MERCY, could get that much.

"I'm not a metahuman," said Mera, as if reading Nat's thoughts. Nat narrowed their eyes further. "You don't need to be, to see the tension in you. Every time I mention the future, you shut me out, as if you expect not to have one."

Nat shrugged, words sliding out of them before they could help it. "Seems logical."

Mera tilted her head in the other direction, an infuriating furrow to her brows and a curiosity in her eyes that made Nat want to slap her.

"Logical?" asked Mera. The van rumbled over a pot hole in the streets and turned a slow, sharp corner. The buzzing tickled Nat’s neck. They didn’t have enough freedom to rub at it.

"You don't think we're going to lock you up, do you?" The incredulous tone in her voice made Nat look away, gaze dropping to the floor. The chains on their arms and legs jangled with the rumbling of the van, a faint tinkling that seemed to mock them. "Carter — _Nat._ " Mera's voice turned horrified. "You can't possibly think we'd hurt you."

Nat shifted their hands as best they could and shoved up the sleeves of their hoodie, revealing the bruises, scrapes, and half-healed cuts that littered their skin. At the wrists, around the cuffs, the skin was rubbed raw where MERCY had fought and fought to force them on Nat's wrists, ripping their skin and damaging their hands in the process.

"It goes further," murmured Nat, not looking directly at Mera. They glanced up through their bangs and eyelashes, then regretted it when they saw how absolutely horrified Mera looked. That kind of shock couldn't be faked. She hadn't known.

But why hadn’t she?

"I'm so sorry," whispered Mera, her voice hoarse. "Nat, I am so, so sorry. I had no idea the extent to which you'd been mistreated before I arrived."

Nat snorted, pressing their back to the cold metal of the van's walls, drawing up their knees to rest their arms on them. With their sleeves pushed back down and their hair in their face, it was easy enough to hide from Mera, at least in this small way.

"Mistreated?" echoed Nat. They rolled their eyes, flicking their bangs with the exaggerated motion. "Did they tell you what I did to them?"

Mera stared. "You're a _child_ ," she said.

"A child who injured almost forty men," replied Nat, rattling off the words as casual as they could. It was hard not to flinch at the memory. The smell of burning flesh, the screams and spasms of the armed and faceless men who'd come for Nat in the night with their harsh lights and harsher words. With their dogs. Nat hadn't hurt the dogs, they didn't think, just knocked them out with a quick shock. With their flashlights and their _guns._

Oh, their guns had been the worst. The constant rat-a-tat of the firing, the booms of gasoline pumps exploding when Nat had tried to flee the small town they'd been corralled into.

And Nat hadn't done anything, either. Hadn't attacked until they'd raised their weapons and ordered Nat to stand down. After that, it should have all been self defense. But none of them cared. They'd called Nat a monster, an animal, a danger, a—

Nat shook their head, pushing away the words that were as good as seared into their brain. That night in the wilderness, and the three that followed, fleeing, crying, panicking, hiding, had been the worst Nat had ever faced. But it would have been even worse if Nat hadn't fled the group home they'd been in, weeks prior to that night.

They'd fled because of the power outage. The surge in Nat's powers that they _knew_ would bring MERCY. They _knew_ would bring attention from Veda City. But damn it, those men had _hurt_ their group home manager. He'd been a cool guy. He didn't deserve that.

So, Nat had run. And ended up in the wilderness. Not that that was new.

And then MERCY had come anyway.

God, Nat still didn't know if the idiots had hurt their old group home roommates. They'd never been friends, but they didn't deserve to be threatened with guns, or worse, shot, because of Nat.

"Fifty-six, actually," said Mera, half mumbling the words. "Four in critical condition. All expected to survival, but with extensive nerve and tissue damage." She tried to look Nat in the eye. Nat let her, staring down Mera's concerned and frustrated gaze with Nat's own, which was blank but for the anger that burned within, hidden behind a lowered chin, hanging hair, and a flat expression.

Nat knew one of those four. They remembered the attack. He'd jammed a knife into Nat's side, catching Nat's jacket instead of their skin. They'd liked that jacket. They’d had to toss it after that. Only the flimsy one they wore now remained.

When that hadn't worked, he'd gone for his gun. Nat's powers fired off, sending him careening off the cliff, and Nat had torn off before they'd heard him hit the snow-covered ground far below.

They'd wondered, if he'd survived. No one would tell them anything. They hadn't meant to hurt him that badly, just get him _away._ They'd all been shooting at Nat, pulling out weapons, shining lights, shouting, and sending viciously trained dogs after them. What were they supposed to do? Get shot? Get mauled? Die? Not likely. So, they'd fought.

And now here they were.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" asked Mera, sounding more curious than upset. “Your treatment isn’t justified, but why do you act as though hurting them was?”

"They started it," said Nat, the words rolling off their tongue as easy as breathing.

Mera shook her head, that incredulous tone and expression back. The buzzing seemed less incessant now, leaving Nat's mind mostly clear. Must have been a border thing. Maybe some sort of barrier? Or some sort of scan. Or something related to power plants.

Now, an electrical plant. That would be something useful to find.

Nat wondered if they were still immune to electrical shocks of all sorts, or if they could get zapped from static electricity or something similar.

"You don't feel anything for those men, do you?" asked Mera, the frustration clear in her voice. "For their injuries, for their families, for anything that happened that night or the next?" Or the next, or the next, Nat added, mentally. Mera didn't seem to think it'd gone on more than two nights. Nat wasn't about to correct her. "You just don't care." The shock was almost enough to make Nat feel guilty.

Almost, but not quite. _No wonder they hurt you,_ Mera didn’t say, but Nat thought they heard it, regardless.

"I didn't hurt the dogs," said Nat, blinking once.

Mera sighed, bowing her head. Her massive orange-brown afro hung over her face and she curled her fingers into it. She lifted her head and raised her eyebrows at Nat.

"The dogs?" she echoed. Nat knew shock. Knew what it sounded like. This wasn’t it. Mera wasn’t surprised.

How much of her concern had been faked, as well?

"The dogs didn't have a choice. The people did," said Nat. The anger was starting to leak out, colouring their words. Mera didn't visibly flinch, but something like fear flashed through her eyes. Even chained and de-powered, she was still scared of Nat. Nat wasn't sure what to make of that. They were, after all, just a kid, as Mera had said. Sixteen years old and treated like an animal.

They couldn't move. They couldn't use their powers. All they had were their words, which they'd only started using less than an hour ago.

A pang went through Nat. Sorrow, or something like it. Disappointment, as well. And, exhaustion. Nat was _tired._ Not just physically, but mentally. They were chained. They were powerless. They were being carted off to who knew where. And _yet._ Yet there they were, in the back of a truck with a woman who could do anything to Nat and the men driving them would almost definitely look the other way, and it was she was who scared of Nat, and not the other way around.

"God, you people really all are the same, aren't you?" Nat almost spat out the words. Tears burned in their eyes just as surely as anger, as hatred, burned on their tongue and down their throat, into their chest. Nat raised their hands as best they could - not quite to shoulder level. "I'm chained and powerless. The fuck am I gonna do to ya, huh?" Accent. Northern, but sharp. Nat bit the inside of their cheek.

They _hated_ sounding like a hick.

"I'm not afraid of you," said Mera, flatly. She straightened up, lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders. Too little, too late. "I am trying to help you."

"Bullshit," snapped Nat. They jutted their chin out at Mera. "If you were gonna help me, you would've told me all this shit days ago. Would've been helping me the whole time, not just playing off as being some last second saviour in the last hour before my death march." Mera's eyes flickered, her head twitching at the words, like she couldn't believe them.

"Your what?" asked Mera. Now _that_ was shock. Nat couldn’t bring themself to care.

Nat scowled. "Metaphors, sweetheart," they said. Mera scowled at the term. "Try to keep up."

"You're going to lock up," said Mera, ignoring Nat's words. She spoke flatly, professionally, as if reading off a grocery list. "As I said before, you will be assessed psychologically and mentally, as well as physically, by a team of trained professionals." She levelled her gaze at Nat, all sympathy gone. All Nat saw was ice in those brown eyes. "After that, it will be up to the Department of Justice what happens to you."

The truck slowed and stopped.

"I could have helped you. I wanted to help you," said Mera. Her head turning toward the truck's doors as the lock jangled on the other side.

The door opened, and the MERCY officers were standing there. One came in and unchained Nat from the floor, tugging at the chain to make them move forward.

Nat cast one glance last glance back at Mera and levelled her with their own cool gaze. "No, you didn't."

They let themself be led out of the back of the truck. It was a steep drop down and Nat stumbled, legs wobbly and knees weak from days of sitting. In front of them was what looked like a fancy building. Several stories of stone and carvings. Metal on the darkened windows. Barely visible in the night were the words _‘Central District: Police Precinct Four’_ on the sign that perched above the ornate double doors atop the shadowed stone steps.

Nat didn't bother fighting the MERCY officers as they led Nat, mostly with their large, white guns, toward the steps of the precinct. Instead, they took a moment to breathe and enjoy the fresh air that brushed across their cheeks, and the softness of the dark sky lightened by pre-dawn overhead.

Then, Nat bowed their head and walked into the precinct, the slamming door taking away the last view of the outside Nat knew they'd seen for a long time. And, maybe, forever.


	2. Interrogation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone so much for their feedback! I'll be replying to individual comments as I get the time, but know that I appreciate every last one of them - on and off AO3. I'm so glad to know that other people are excited for the start of this series!
> 
> Cheers, everyone! (And no, I have no idea what my update schedule is gonna be, either. Just enjoy the chapters.)

The cell they put Nat in was small. Large enough to pace a couple of steps and to hold the fold down wall cot, the sink, and the toilet, but not for much else. It was a solid concrete and metal room; the walls bare of anything but a mirror above the sink and a vent in the ceiling for air flow. The room was sealed with a solid steel door with a tiny mesh and bar enforced window, as well as a locking slot for food trays.

Once Nat was settled, the people started coming. First, a man named Doctor Akua, who asked Nat a bunch of health-related questions, measured their height and weight, their blood pressure, took a few vials of blood, and then was gone. There were a few others: a child psychologist that Nat didn't know the name of, a nutritionist that Nat also didn't know the name of, and then some person that just watched Nat for a few minutes as Akua came back and took more blood.

Another one showed up to patch Nat up, a woman named Doctor Higgins who smeared weird smelling pale blue gel all over Nat's scraps and cuts and bruises, including the ones on their face. She seemed the nicest of the group, with her soft words and soft touches. Her eyes made Nat think she was a mother. They were too sad when they looked at Nat for her to be anything else.

Then, they were all gone, and Nat was left alone with band-aids and blue gel spread on their skin and the cold turned too high for a room made of concrete and steel.

Nat napped on and off throughout the day, drifting awake when people shuffled by beyond their cell. It appeared they weren't the only one in lock-up, but the people who came down were gone within hours.

At some point, a food tray was shoved through the slot and locked in. Nat took it and ate the pathetic meal of tater tots, sausages, and carrots. They sat, cross-legged, on the cot, nibbling at their food and not bothering with the plastic fork. The thin blanket on the cot did little to insulate them from the cold of the room. Instead, they hunched into themself, shivering as they tried to keep themself and their food warm. Fruitless, but they tried anyway.

By the time Nat had managed to eat most of their food, two SOLDIERs showed up at the door, just barely visible through the tiny window. Nat set their tray down and pressed themself into the corner of the cell, still atop the cot, their arms around their legs and their body shivering. From fear or the cold, Nat couldn't tell. Both gripped them with an icy hand that seemed to paralyze them where they sat.

A weird buzzing noise, and then the door opened. A man with beady eyes in a well-cut suit stepped into the room and moved to the wall across from Nat. After him came Dr. Higgins, who carried a bag at her side and a smile on her face. It quickly fell when she saw Nat.

"Oh, no, honey," she said, scurrying forward. She dropped to her knees and rested in front of the cot. The door slammed shut. Nat flinched, body trembling. "It'll be okay. I just wanted to check in on you."

Nat nodded and slowly uncurled to allow Dr. Higgins to check on the marks on their arms and wrists. She pushed up Nat's hoodie sleeves with gentle touches, her gaze flicking up to Nat's face whenever she moved them a bit.

"Who's he?" asked Nat, their gaze flicking up to the man for a moment before returning to Dr. Higgins.

She hummed and turned Nat's hands over, checking the gel she'd inserted beneath and around the slim silver bands that made up Nat's inhibitor cuffs. She frowned.

"That would be Detective Madden. He works for SOLDIER," she said. She glanced up at Nat, her eyes soft. "He'd like to ask you a few questions, once I'm done." Her gaze slid across Nat again and she gave a slight frown. Nat swallowed. "And I'd like to get you another blanket." She cast a look over her shoulder. "Madden, get them one, would you?" she asked.

He raised one eyebrow. "I don't think that's necessary," he said, voice clipped and sort of snobbish.

"I do," said Dr. Higgins, flashing him one of those smiles that meant she wasn't smiling at all. Nat had seen the group home managers use them a thousand times in the short time they'd been in each home. "Seeing as I'm Nat's doctor, I think my opinions hold a bit more sway in regards to their general health." She nodded toward the door. "Please and thank you."

Madden rolled his eyes and pushed off the wall, stalking out of the room - the door opening and closing by the SOLDIERs on the other side of the door.

"Don't worry too much about those two," said Dr. Higgins, digging through her bag. "They're SOLDIER, not MERCY."

"I know," said Nat, watching Dr. Higgins. She hesitated, cocking her head a little at Nat, before pulling a clear tube out of her bag. Another one of those gel tubes. Nat didn't know what they were, exactly, but the cuts on their arms and face had stopped hurting once Dr. Higgins had spread it on their skin, so they figured it was probably fine.

She seemed nice.

"You do?" asked Dr. Higgins. "How?" The question was curious, and a little amused. None of the frustration that had been in Mera's or Dr. Akua's voices when they'd spoken to Nat. Nat wondered if Dr. Higgins was a meta. Someone with calming aura or something similar. They wondered if she'd answer honestly, if they asked.

"MERCY wears white," said Nat, remembering their uniforms in the snow. The room grew colder. They shivered and hugged themself, smearing some of the gel on their arm onto their hoodie by accident. They didn't care. It smelled weird, kind of like mint and fruit mixed together, but it didn't seem to hurt the clothing. "Like snow," whispered Nat. Dr. Higgins said nothing. She frowned, a furrow to her brow that said she was thinking. Nat swallowed against the harsh taste of bile in their mouth. "SOLDIER wears black and blue, like police."

Dr. Higgins nodded. "They are police, in a way. One half of the police force in Veda." She didn't say it like she expected Nat to thank her, instead just rattling off the words like it was a casual conversation. Nat liked it. "Can I ask you something, Nat?"

"Can I ask you something too?" replied Nat, raising both eyebrows.

Dr. Higgins smiled, a wry twist to her lips, and cocked her head a bit. "Sure," she said, voice tinged with amusement. "Why not?"

"Are you a meta?" asked Nat.

"No," said Dr. Higgins. She shook her head. "You'll find, fairly quickly, that asking most people over thirty that question yields the same answer in Veda City."

Nat furrowed their brow. "You're over thirty?" they asked.

Dr. Higgins gave a light laugh. "That's very kind of you," she said. "But yes, by a few years." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Why don't you fight me?" Nat blinked. What? "You've been nothing but courteous and good-natured with me since you arrived. I must admit, I expected a bit of a fight."

Did most of them fight, Nat wondered. How many kids did Dr. Higgins deal with? Was it a lot? Or had Dr. Higgins just been told about Nat, just like Mera had? Nat grew colder still and shivered, swallowing again. It seemed everyone was told more about Nat than Nat was told about their entire situation.

"There's no point," said Nat, words soft. They stared at their hands as they extended them out to Dr. Higgins. She pulled out a little device that scanned them with a little blue light. The screen on the device beeped, but Nat couldn't see what was on the screen. "You need to do things for your job. If I fight, I could hurt you. They'll bring in SOLDIER, hold me down."

Nat clenched their trembling hands into fists, swallowing again. No matter how many times they swallowed, the taste of bile refused to fade. Instead, it seemed to grow with each passing moment, churning Nat's stomach until they could barely breathe. Each breath they took shook on both the inhale and exhale. They could almost feel the hands of the SOLDIERs holding them down, hear the shouts of the men arguing as Nat tried and tried to call their powers to the surface.

The smell of burning skin. The taste of ozone in the air. Lightning arcing all around them. White uniforms turning to ash and blood.

But no, that wasn't _now_ , that was _before._ Before the cuffs. Now, Nat wouldn't be able to fight back.

"I won't let them," said Dr. Higgins, with the kind of conviction that made Nat want to believe her. _Want_ , being the keyword. Someone like her? A doctor at the whims of SOLDIER and probably MERCY as well? She didn't have any real power. Even if she'd managed to toss Madden out of the room to go look for blankets. Impressive. Or maybe calculated? Surely, in this sort of place, even someone as nice as Dr. Higgins had to be calculating and scheming to some degree.

"Nat, I am so, so sorry for what happened to you," said Dr. Higgins. She rested a hand on Nat's foot, the only place she could, seeing as Nat still had their legs drawn up to their chest. She looked Nat in the eye and Nat noticed, for the first time, that her eyes were a soft, dark brown. Like chocolate. Nat swallowed. "I can't imagine what you've been through, and I want you to know that I think what I _do_ know was done to you was _monstrous._ "

"Cameras," murmured Nat, staring at their knees. Their pants were worn through at the knees. "There are cameras."

Dr. Higgins squeezed their foot through their shoe. "I know. Let them hear me. They've yet to scold me for it." When Nat looked, Dr. Higgins eyes were twinkling and there was a mischievous twist to her lips. "Your wrists are going to scar."

Nat blinked. What? "What?"

"Your wrists," said Dr. Higgins, gently taking one hand. "I can't get to them properly because of these damned cuffs," that was the first time someone else had talked about them, "and they weren't treated out in the field. I'm sorry. They'll scar pretty badly." She looked back up at Nat. "The rest of you won't. Even that one on your face shouldn't scar."

Nat lifted their other hand to touch the spot just to the side of the gelled over cut. "Really?" they asked. "How?"

The door opened again. Madden came in with a pair of folded blankets. He tossed them onto the bed, then dragged a chair into the room, which he spun around and straddled, the back of it facing Nat alongside his front.

"You're done," said Madden. He jerked a head toward the door. "Out. You can come back later.”

Dr. Higgins rolled her eyes and flashed Nat a smile. "See you soon," she said. She gave Nat's hand a squeeze before getting up and leaving the room, her bag bouncing against her hip. The door slammed shut. Nat flinched again, and then they were left alone with Madden.

"Nat Carter," he said, the words falling off his lips like weights. They slammed into the floor. Echoed in the metal and concrete chamber that was Nat's whole world. "I've heard a lot about you."

Nat bit back the urge to snap that they hadn't heard anything about him. With Dr. Higgins gone, all their defenses came alive at once. The hair on the back of their neck stood up, their face contorted into half a sneer - mostly in the baring of the teeth and the curl of their nose - and their hands curled into half fists atop their raised knees. Their back still pressed against the cold concrete wall in the corner of the cell, which lined up with the corner of their cot.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asked, cocking his head a bit. His arms were draped over the top of the chair. It was a metal chair. Seemed level, which meant the floor was level. No drain. Would make clean up a bitch if something happened.

 _Something_. Like Nat didn't have a few ideas already.

"Not really," said Nat. They forced themself to look at Madden. At his dark, beady eyes. At his stupid facial hair that was probably meant to be a 'look'. At his stupid suit and his stupid face with his little sneer and his mocking eyes. Like he thought he knew everything in the whole god damn world.

_You don't know me._

"Really?" asked Madden. His tone was half mocking and half frustrated. Nat narrowed their eyes at him and let their sneer drop into a scowl.

Madden said, "Well, let's go over the list, shall we? You're a runaway—"

"I'm sixteen," snapped Nat. "Not illegal."

Madden tilted his head, pursing his lips a bit. "Fine," he said, slowly. "Let's start over: breaking and entering, theft, property damage, resisting arrest, assault, armed assault—"

"Since when is using your meta powers considered armed assault?" asked Nat, lifting their head and jutting out their chin.

"2014, 'round these parts," replied Madden, flashing Nat a vicious smile. Nat shrunk back a bit and scowled further. "Not to mention what we _think_ was attempted murder. The damage you caused to those MERCY officers wasn't exactly normal, Carter. You could have killed them."

Nat grit their teeth. "But I didn't," they said.

"A fact you seem well aware of," murmured Madden, as if Nat hadn't spoken at all. He narrowed his eyes at Nat. "Tell me, Nat, why did you run away from your group home? Reports say you were there eight months - the longest you've ever been anywhere."

Nat swallowed and said nothing.

Madden sighed. "All right, let's see if I can't piece it all together then, based on the reports." He straightened up and stabbed a finger at Nat. "By your control, you've had those powers of yours for a while." Nat clenched their hands into fists, ignoring the burn in their raw wrists. "So, the reports claiming you didn't are wrong.” By a long shot, actually, but Nat wasn’t about to tell _him_ that. “I figure you attacked someone, probably for a reason you thought was just,” _it was_ , “not realizing MERCY would come for you. Then, when that freak electrical storm hit up in Alaska, your powers latched on."

Nat took a breath. All they could smell was ozone.

"You caused some damage, knocked the power out in your town." _They remembered the whole world going dark around them._ "So you ran, scared." A pause. Nat sucked in another breath, entire body trembling. "You ended up in the forests, which is where MERCY found you."

Guns. So many guns.

"Believe it or not, you attacked first," said Madden. Nat flinched. They remembered. They remembered all too well. As much as they hated to admit it. The surge of electricity in their fingertips, the scream as Nat had forced their powers forward. Screams that were theirs. Screams that weren’t. "Why?"

"They had guns," Nat choked out. Their vision seemed to flicker. The cell. The forest. The concrete. The snow. Madden’s face. The blank masks of the MERCY officers. Their helmets hid their humanity. Made them all into faceless killing machines.

 _Stand down,_ they’d said, raising their weapons. And Nat had let loose.

"Which you destroyed without breaking a sweat," replied Madden, easily. He frowned. "You're scared of them."

"They're _guns,"_ replied Nat, staring at him. It was an obvious enough answer for an obvious question. Why wouldn’t they be?

His frown deepened. "All fears have a source. Where does yours come from?"

 _The smell of ozone and gunpowder. Screaming._ Nat flinched again.

"I don't know," they said, voice bitter and flat.

"Why did you attack those men?" asked Madden. "Why did you attack MERCY?"

"They were going to kill me!" protested Nat, throwing their hands into the air. Their wrists screamed at them and Nat cried out, grabbing at the left one with their right hand, bringing their hands close to their chest.

Madden looked Nat up and down, dismissive. "And yet, here you are, whole and fine, and every last one of the officers sent to retrieve you is in the hospital." He gave Nat a flat look, eyebrows raised. "Care to explain that?"

Nat grit their teeth, still cradling their wrist. "You call this fine?" they asked, bitterness dripping through their teeth.

There was silence for a long minute, then Madden began to speak again. "The Canadian and US border laws changed in 2008. Your age puts your birthday sometime in 2001. You were seven years old when the borders closed." Nat narrowed their eyes. _So? What was that supposed to mean, exactly?_

"But there's a thing." Madden leaned forward on the back of the chair, one arm dangling and stabbing at finger at Nat with his other hand. "We investigated you - US and Canada - and we can't find a damned thing. No ID, no birth certificate, nothing. The furthest back your file goes is age nine, when you were taken in by CPS up in Alaska." Madden frowned, looking thoughtful. "So, my question is, where do you come from? Where were you born? Are you Canadian or American?"

Nat swallowed, mouth bitter. "I don't know."

"You could have hopped that border like it was nothing as a kid. Or your parents could have. When they closed, were you on your side or the other?" asked Madden.

"I don't _know_ ," said Nat, their words trembling.

"Why were you in Alaska? What brought you there?" asked Madden, words coming faster.

"I don't fucking know!" snapped Nat, anger breaking through and cresting across them like a wave. Their vision blurred as tears gathered in their eyes. "I don't _know_ , all right? I was just a kid. I don't remember anything."

Madden relaxed in his chair, all the aggression leaving his posture and expression. "Carter," he said, his voice softer. "When you were asked what your birthday was, you said 'August'. You don't remember your parents’ names. You don't remember much of anything before CPS, according to your, rather flimsy, file." Madden frowned, eyes in shadow. "I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this."

"Is that why you have me locked up in a cell in the biggest meta city in the world?" asked Nat. The anger broke, leaving only bitterness and frustration behind.

"I'm not the one who locked you up here," said Madden. "The people who did? They're the ones who want to trial you for all the crimes I listed off. I'm not saying this to scare you. I'm saying this to tell you what's at stake here. This isn't just about _you._ I'm trying to help you."

"Sure," said Nat, spitting out the word. They'd heard that before. A thousand times or more. Most in the last week.

Madden shook his head. "I don't know why I bothered. I shouldn't have expected you to be cooperative." He got to his feet, hand on the back of the chair. "You could have at least _tried_ to help yourself."

Nat raised both eyebrows at Madden. "Would it have helped?" they asked.

Madden paused for a moment, looking pensive. Then, quietly, he said, "Probably not." With that, he picked up the chair and left the room, the door buzzed, opened, buzzed, and slammed shut.

And Nat was left alone again, with two cold carrots and an extra set of blankets at the end of the cot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, questions, concerns, and constructive feedback are always welcome!


	3. A Visitor Calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to everyone who left feedback! Have another chapter. This one is more transitional, but we're getting to the good stuff because of it next chapter!

No one else came in that day. Nor the next. But when Nat awoke the next day, or what they assumed was the next day, they saw something on the floor, just to the side of their cot. When they sat up to squint at it in the ever-unchanging low levels of light the cell was lit in, they found it was a book.

Fear crept up their spine and clawed at their breath. Someone had gotten into the cell while Nat was asleep, and it hadn't woken Nat up. _But_ _…_ Nat checked their wrists, pressing at the cuffs to press into the skin beneath them, and found they felt normal. Sore, tender, raw, but normal. Or at least, the new normal.

They hadn't been sedated.

So how had someone gotten in?

Carefully, and with trembling fingers, Nat reached down and picked up the book. It was a hardcover, not very big, and had been lying upside down on the floor. Ornate carvings in cold surrounded the dark wood of the cover. When Nat turned it over, they saw the title written in raised gold lettering. _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland._ It was a fancy book, fancier than anything Nat had ever owned or lived in the same home as, and it was small enough that they could fit it in their hoodie pocket.

"Huh," said Nat, softly. Where the hell had it come from? How had someone gotten in here without Nat knowing? But this was a city full of Metahumans. Maybe it was a meta. But metas didn't work with SOLDIER, as far as Nat knew. But how much did Nat know?

They knew MERCY and SOLDIER existed. They knew SCOUT existed. They knew the city was massive. They knew levels were a thing. That five was the highest. The most dangerous. The most deadly. But not much else. Only a few tidbits they'd picked up through the gossip mill at the group homes and on the news when they'd heard the television some evenings.

Hesitantly, Nat cracked open the book and ran their fingers across the few words inked into the first page. _For GV, Happy Anniversary._ Who was GV? Nat frowned and shook their head. However it had gotten here, it was here now, and there was nothing Nat could do about it.

With a small shrug, Nat leaned against the wall behind them, still cross-legged on the cot, still shaking slightly in fear, and started reading.

_'Alice was beginning to get very tired_ _…'_

It was a struggle, to read. It'd been a while since Nat had had to do much reading, and they'd never been particularly good at it. Multiple times a page, Nat had to stop and reread sentences, squint at the lettering, and try to figure out just what this Carroll person was talking about.

No one came to see them that day. Nat waited, alternating between reading and pacing, but no one came. Food trays were pushed in by faceless SOLDIERS beyond the door. They ate, hiding the book whenever they did, but still no one came.

The silence was the worst part. Isolation, Nat could handle. They'd spent most of their life alone. But down in this underground holding cell, the silence was deafening. Occasionally, Nat could hear a SOLDIER walking down the hall to bring food, or the vents would click on for a moment to blow more frigid air into the already frigid basement. But, beyond that, there wasn't a sound.

Out in the forests, or in the group homes, there had always been noise. In the forests it was the sounds of the wind in the trees, the chattering or chirruping of birds and other small animals, or the howls of wolves as they stalked the woods for prey. In the group homes it had been the sounds of the house settling at night, the wind whistling in the windows, the breathing and movement of other people. But never silence. Not once, silence.

The silence was the worst part.

It was sometime in the evening, which Nat only knew from the regular meals, that it finally got to be too much. Nat shoved themself to their feet and started moving, going through their stretches. Then, stripping off their hoodie, they went through all the old stances they'd learned from sneaking into martial arts classes. Fluid motions and sharp punches and kicks, shifting movements to stay loose, balanced. It wasn't long before they started sweating and all thoughts of the frigid air left them. Their mind was blank, merely a conduit for their motion, their instinct.

Left, _men behind you;_ right, _men in front of you._ Twist, turn, strike, shout; _they're coming._ A kick, then a punch, then another. _Duck_. Nat ducked, swung out one leg, and jumped backward. Phantom fighters, long gone but still there, stared back at them. Nat took a breath and lifted their fists, shifting to a more defensive position. _Fight._

Nat struck out, again and again, punching and kicking, twisting around, using momentum to toss the invisible fighters across the cell. Gunshots fired off in their ears. They ducked, covered their head. Head-butt one of them. One grabbed their arm. Nat jerked out and tossed him into another. One struck out at them and Nat gasped, leaping back, arms raised to protect themself from the raised guns and—

They struck the cot. Pain, dull but sharp at once, shot up the backs of their legs. The cot's noise echoed in the cell. Past and present separated at once.

Nat was alone.

They collapsed onto the cot, knees angled toward one another and hands gripping the edge of the cot as hard as they could. Their breathing came in harsh, sharp pants; their entire body shook. The sweat beaded and cooled, leaving them shivering and frozen in the cell once more.

Nat closed their eyes and took a breath. Then another. Then another. They forced themself to slow their breathing until it no longer felt like sucking in air through a straw.

Nat lifted their head and opened their eyes. The mirror was cracked, distorting their reflection into something monstrous and broken and _wrong._

_Fitting_ , they thought, before dropping sideways onto the cot and wrapping themself in their blankets.

Sleep came slowly, in flickers and spurts. It was an uneasy sleep, filled with nightmarish visions of smoke and ash and fire. Of lightning and thunder and rain. Of white and black and red. None of it made sense. But it felt familiar. And when Nat awoke, the taste of ash and the smell of ozone was thick in the air, and they weren't sure if it was real or imagined. Or if the difference really mattered.

The next two days passed the same way. Nat picked away at the book, slow and steady, ate the meals when they were brought, and spent a lot of time pacing and doing stretches. They didn't try to practice fighting again. Instead, they stuck to push-ups, sit-ups, and various other forms of strength training whenever they felt the need. As long as they were eating regular meals, they figured they should do something with the energy it gave them.

No one came to see them. The SOLDIERs didn't speak when they brought Nat food. The silence remained deafening. Exhausting.

Almost alive, in its ever lingering, ever present nature.

The next day, after those three spent alone, someone finally came to see Nat. They knew, because they were the only one still on this floor of holding, and, when the elevator opened, it wasn't yet time for another meal. Someone was coming to speak to them.

Nat waited, cross-legged, on their cot. It was only after a few seconds that they realized their book was still out in the open and, not knowing what else to do with it, Nat shoved it into their hoodie pocket, glad that the oversized hoodie and undersized book made it easy to hide.

A moment later, the door buzzed and opened, and Detective Madden stepped into the room. The door closed a moment later, buzzing as it did so. Madden didn't move from his position just inside the door.

"Carter," he said. There was a distance in his eyes, and his hands were stuffed in his pockets. He didn't quite look at Nat, instead looking over their shoulder with a slight frown on his face. "You have a visitor."

Nat looked at Madden, then leaned a bit to look at the door. They then turned their gaze back to Madden and raised their eyebrows at him. "Where?" they asked. No one else seemed to be with Madden. Nat hadn't heard any other footsteps when he'd been coming down the hall. Just his.

Madden visible ground his teeth. "He's not here. You're to be released to his assistant to take you to him."

Nat blinked. _What?_ "What?" they asked. "Is that allowed? Can he do that?" They couldn’t keep the incredulousness, the doubt, from their voice.

Madden sighed, looking more put-upon and frustrated than Nat thought he was capable. "The man is richer than _god_. There's not really much we can do about it."

A chill went down Nat's spine. Richer than god? Nothing they could do?

What did he want with Nat? Would this be worse than the cell? Worse than their nightmares? Nat began to shiver. They forced themself to stop by crossing their arms and gripping their biceps as hard as they could.

But that didn’t stop the imagined outcomes that flooded their mind’s eye. They could see it now. Poked full of holes to study them, mind worked to exhaustion as psychic after psychic tried to find a way to crack their skull wide open. It wouldn’t work. It never did. Too much static in their brain.

But would that change, now that their powers were locked down? The last psychic hadn’t been able to. But things were different now. It’d been days, not moments. Not minutes. Not hours. _Days._

Just how much had Nat lost when they’d finally forced those damned inhibitor cuffs on them at the border? How much would they never regain?

"He's not dangerous," said Madden. His voice was level, but when Nat blinked away their nightmares, they found concern in his eyes. "He's just eccentric. As good a man I think you can ever meet. You'll see." He tilted his head toward the door. "Come on. Let's go. I need to get you to the surface, so his assistant can take you there." He turned toward the door and paused, casting a glance over his shoulder. "Don't try anything funny, all right?"

Nat raised their hands to shoulder height, the sleeves of their hoodie sliding down enough to show off the inhibitor cuffs. They raised both eyebrows at Madden and gave him a flat look.

"Point taken," he said. He rapped twice on the door and it buzzed and opened. As he left, Nat hesitated a moment, unsure if this was some sort of trick. When the door didn't close after Madden left, and Madden turned and raised an eyebrow at Nat, Nat scurried out of the cell. The door buzzed and slammed shut. Nat cringed away from it, eyes wide as they stared at the cell from the other side.

As Madden began to walk, Nat forced their gaze from the cell door and instead focused on the elevator at the end of the hall. The walls were nothing special to look at. Concrete walls and metal doors with slats and windows. Just like Nat’s cell. Half a dozen in total, all spread further apart than the size of the cells forced them to be.

Reinforcement, most likely. Nat tried to take it as a compliment, instead of a mark of caution, of fear, of insult.

They failed.

At the elevator was a member of SOLDIER holding the door open. He wore the same black and blue uniform of every other SOLDIER, but his face seemed much friendlier. He visibly perked when he saw Nat and waved to them as Nat and Madden approached the elevator.

"Morning, Madden!" said the officer, beaming. If Nat had to guess, they'd say he was probably Mexican or Puerto Rican. It bothered them that they couldn't tell which. Especially because Nat, mixed as they were, was _half-Mexican._ The other half was black, though Nat had no idea where in the world they got that half. It was something a birth certificate could tell them.

Which, as Madden had pointed out, they were missing.

Regardless, they should have known what the officer was, and the fact that they didn’t bothered them, nagging at their mind even as they turned their attention outward once more.

"And you must be Carter," said the officer, bouncing on his toes. The door to the elevator slid shut with them inside. They rose up toward the ground floor. "Welcome to Veda City."

Nat cast a look around the elevator, stainless steel and support bars and a blinking panel of lights and buttons, then they looked down at their hands, which they clasped in front of them. Well, at least no one had handcuffed them again. That was a bonus.

"Nice welcome," said Nat, drily, trying to hide the fear that crept up their spine. The cell was a prison, but it was one Nat knew all the variables in. The outside, wherever Nat was going next, was all unknowns. Nat knew nothing at all. No knowledge, no power.

No safety.

The officer rubbed the back of his neck and winced. "Sorry about all this. Believe me, I can't _believe_ they stuck you on third lockup. We usually only put murderers down there! Or people being sent to the Fort."

"D'Angelo," said Madden, a warning in his voice.

The officer, D'Angelo, kept rambling. "Or Sanctum! But it's been a few years since we sent anyone there. Man, you should have _seen_ her. Singh was a menace, that's for sure. Definitely one of the most interesting cases we've ever dealt with."

" _D'Angelo,_ " said Madden again, this time through his teeth. Nat looked between the two, unsure what to do.

"Anyway, if all goes well, you won't be back in lock-up tonight. Not many people get a personal invite from _Giovanni Vacilli_ ," continued D'Angelo. He grinned, still bouncing on his toes in his hard-soled shoes. They squeaked. "I can't imagine what that's like…"

"D'Angelo!" Madden's frustrated growl burst into the elevator. Nat jumped and stumbled back half a step from him, their eyes wide. D'Angelo stopped talking. The elevator stopped, dinged, and opened. "Carter hasn't been briefed."

D'Angelo and Nat both blinked, almost in unison.

"Why not?" asked D'Angelo. Nat glanced up at him, folding their arms loosely across their chest. Good question. Why not?

Madden scrubbed a hand over his face, throwing out the other one to hold the elevator door open as it started to close, and let out a frustrated noise. "I was specifically asked not to tell them anything," he bit out through gritted teeth. "Yu's supposed to do that."

"Oooh," said D'Angelo, drawing out the word and nodding. He flashed a smile at Nat. "Well, looks like you're in for a great surprise today, Carter! Hope you enjoy it." He beamed at Nat and got off the elevator, waving as he headed over to a desk in the corner.

Nat took a moment to survey the room and found the room was surveying them back. A dozen officers, all in black and blue, as it seemed there weren't any other detectives in the area, all stared at Nat. A hush fell over the room as Madden gestured for them to get out of the elevator. Together, the two crossed the loud and echoing tile floor toward the big doors that led to the outside world.

The desks were messy. The people were gawking. The lights were harsh, far too bright after so many days underground. Nat's knees wobbled from all the people. They stumbled half a step as Madden opened the doors and just barely managed to catch themself before they fell down the steps.

"Don't fall," said Madden, a sigh in his voice. Nat wasn't sure if it was directed at them, the officers behind them, or the woman in front of them.

In the street in front of the precinct, parked at the side of the road, was a very nice, sleek looking black car. Leaned against the passenger side door, which faced them, was a harsh faced, impossibly elegant and sharp looking Korean woman with long hair that blew in the breeze. She eyed Nat coolly, lifting her chin and sliding down her sunglasses to flick her gaze up and down them. Nat shivered, crossing their arms to hide themself from the woman.

Again, fear skittered up their spine and, for a moment, Nat debated making a run for it. It would have been easy. Vault over the railing against the stairs, take off into the alleyway near by. Sure, they had no idea where anything was, but a city like this would have side streets. If Nat could hide out long enough to avoid the SOLDIER and MERCY officers that'd be sent after them, they could probably find the edge of the city and disappear into the British Columbia wilderness. Make their way back north, if necessary.

Not that there was anything waiting for them, up there. But it _felt_ like they should be there. And maybe that was why Nat had never left in the first place. Because there was something in Alaska holding them there. But _what?_ Seven years and Nat had never figured it out.

Nat took a step forward. Then another, shifting to the side.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," said the woman. She smiled at Nat, but it didn't reach her eyes and seemed more sly than anything else. "SOLDIER will have you in seconds with those cuffs."

"Doubtful," muttered Nat, but they stopped nonetheless. Not worth it at the moment.

"Carter, this is Seung Yu, the assistant to Giovanni Vacilli," said Madden, sighing. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, presumably at Nat. Then, gesturing toward Seung, he said, "You'll be going with her today."

Seung opened the back door of the car and gestured for Nat to get in. "Please," said Seung. Her smile was still sly, but it seemed to reach her eyes a bit more now. "We shouldn't keep Mr. Vacilli waiting."

Nat nodded and padded down the steps, casting a look over their shoulder to find Madden watching Seung with narrowed eyes.

"Madden?" they asked, more curious than anything else.

Madden broke his glare at Seung to look down at Nat, his expression caught between pensive and frustrated. "Be careful, all right?" he said. Nat nodded, slow and uncertain.

After a moment, they broke eye contact with Madden and turned and got into the car. Seung shut the door and circled around to the driver's seat. Through the tinted glass of the windows, Nat watched as Madden watched them for a moment longer. Then, when Seung got in and shut her own door, Madden turned and walked back into the precinct. Seung started the car and they drove off, away from the precinct and away from the only part, and people, of Veda City that Nat knew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, questions, concerns, and concrit are welcome!


	4. An Extended Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, once again, to everyone who commented, kudos'd, or read the fic! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It's a longer one!

Nat's glimpse of the city beyond the slatted windows of the truck, several days past, had not begun to show them what Veda City really looked like. It was _massive_ on a scale that Nat could barely understand. Giant buildings made of glass and steel spread out in every direction, arching into the clouds and staring down at Nat in the backseat of that car, as if they knew that Nat didn't belong here. As if they were watching every movement of that car through the city and whispering to themselves about who Nat was and why they were here.

A million unseeing, unyielding eyes stared down at Nat and no matter where they turned, a million more were always waiting for them.

"You're nervous," said Seung. It wasn't a question. Nat tore their gaze from the city outside the window and looked forward. Seung was watching them through the rear-view mirror, her eyes narrowed and one eyebrow slightly cocked. "Why?"

Nat shrugged and cast their gaze back out the window. The low buzzing had returned, humming under their skin as it begged attention. But no matter where Nat looked, they couldn't find where the source of it was. Maybe it wasn't just the border of the city then. Whatever it was, it was annoying, and it drove a low pain between Nat's eyes.

"Why shouldn't I be?" asked Nat in turn. They watched the buildings grow taller, if that was even possible. Other cars and people were all around. None of them paid their car any attention. They were all in their own worlds: talking to each other, texting friends and loved ones, listening to music, or just trying to get from one place to the next. Thin crowds marked the busy corners of each street, waiting for the lights to change. Fancy cars drove all around them, turning corners, changing lanes, and simply moving forward.

But there was no exhaust. No smog. No smoke. The whole city was perfectly clean and clear, and Nat couldn't figure out why. This many cars, this many people, where was the pollution they'd always seen on TV shows? Where was the smog that one of the social workers had grumbled about whenever she had to travel for work?

Nat glanced back toward Seung as the car stopped at a red light. They narrowed their eyes, catching Seung watching them through the rear-view mirror again.

"Your last name is Yu, right?" asked Nat. They thought that's what Madden had said, anyway.

Seung nodded. Her gaze slid back toward the road as the light changed. "Yes," she said. "And?"

Nat chewed on the inside of their cheek. They grimaced and stared out the window again, gaze tracing the bridge that was just barely visible between all the buildings on the right. It was a massive, gleaming thing that arched into the sky. Why did they need a bridge? Was it over something? Or was it just for aesthetic purposes?

"Madden said you were gonna brief me," said Nat, still watching the bridge. As the car turned a corner, Nat caught a glimpse of sunlit and shimmering blue beneath the bridge before both disappeared. _Water._ A lake? A river? Probably the latter. Even Veda City couldn't be dumb enough to build a bridge over a lake for no reason.

Seung hummed, noncommittal. "I suppose he did," she replied. They turned another corner and paused at another red light. Seung didn't speak. Neither did Nat. The light turned green. They kept driving. Nat watched the cars go by, cataloguing the city as best they could. The further they drove, the worse the buzzing became. When Nat reached out to touch the window, an electric shock leaped out and nipped them. They jerked their hand back.

Seung watched in the mirror, her expression unreadable. "Tell me," said Seung. Nat rubbed their fingertips together. It hadn't hurt, per se, it had just surprised them. Good to know at least part of their immunities were still around. "What do you know what Giovanni Vacilli?"

"His name," said Nat, rolling their eyes. Seung snorted. "What?"

"Have you been under a rock for the last ten years?" replied Seung. Her voice was still mostly flat, but there was a tone of amusement to it, just barely there under the surface.

Only a handful of trees were on this street. They were all in neat little lines, trimmed back from the road and contained in decorative boxes that were too small for their roots. They'd choke before they'd live. What was the point of that? To plant a tree only to force it to die?

"Something like that," said Nat, voice quiet. They watched the trees go by. Already, Nat could tell some of them were dying. The sharp edges and small confines of the boxes were suffocating them. Somewhere in this city, there was probably someone who was paid to dig up dying trees and replace them with new ones, grown from clippings of those that rotted away in heaps far away from all this perfect cleanliness.

Couldn't let such a clean place be tainted by rot and death, after all.

"Did Detective Madden tell you anything?" Seung's eyes were on Nat in the rear-view mirror. Nat wondered if she could still drive, like that. Or if they were going to crash before they met this mysterious man. "Anything at all?"

Nat shrugged. "That he's richer than god and no one to be scared of."

Seung hummed. "Well, he's not wrong." She turned another corner, the car picking up speed as they drove. Nat swallowed and pressed their back to the seat. What was Seung up to? Wasn't there a speed limit on this road or something? "Mr. Vacilli owns a good portion of the city, and his company, VaCorp, is responsible for almost all of the technological advancements and infrastructure changes the city has experienced over the last, oh, fifteen years or so?" Seung tilted her head. Her long hair blew slightly in the AC, which had the car almost as cold as the cell.

Nat shivered and hugged their arms. The cuffs and the collar were frigid as well, freezing Nat down to their bones. They said nothing, waiting to see if Seung would speak again. Questions lingered on their tongue, questions about the city, the technology, the strange buzzing that tickled Nat's mind more and more as they got closer to the massive, spiralling building that seemed to be in the centre of the skyscrapers that rose up in front of the car.

"Surely, you must have some questions," said Seung. Nat didn't speak. There was no real reason to believe that Seung would tell the truth, or even that she was really taking Nat to Giovanni. As far as Nat knew, Madden had just passed Nat off to some stranger just to get them out of his precinct.

Except… Nat remembered his face, his tone, when they had walked away with Seung. Remembered the concern and the fear and the _anger_ in his eyes, like there was something he wanted to say, wanted to do, but couldn't. In fact, if Nat had to guess, they would have said he was scared of Seung. Not of Giovanni, no. Annoyed with him, yes. But not scared. That fear had only been for Seung.

Which really, really didn't make Nat feel better about being in the back of a car with her.

And yet, Nat couldn’t bring themself to be scared of her. Something about that seemed _wrong._ Like fearing her would be a betrayal to themself. Though Nat couldn’t yet place why.

As Nat watched Seung in the rear-view mirror - her own gaze on the road, once more - they spotted a sleek white and silver car following behind them. It wouldn't have been that strange, except it had Veda City's logo on the hood, and it followed them through two corners and ran a red light to keep behind them.

Nat twisted around in their seat and narrowed their eyes at the car. The windshield was tinted enough that Nat couldn't see into the car. They hoped the back window of this car was the same. Turning back around, Nat found Seung narrowing her eyes in the rear-view mirror, her gaze on the car.

"Is that SOLDIER?" asked Nat.

"MERCY," said Seung. She sighed and shook her head, the motion slight. "Probably here to lock you back up under false charges."

Nat frowned. "Why?"

"That, unfortunately, is what they do. You must be quite powerful if MERCY is going to such lengths to return you to holding," said Seung. She exhaled, a sigh that seemed more put-upon that anything else, and cast a sly look at Nat through the rear-view mirror. "Tell me, Nat, have you met any other metahumans since you got here?"

Nat shook their head. Not unless Madden was one, but they didn't think he was. Mera and Dr. Higgins had both said they weren't. And they didn't really have a reason to lie about that. But then, they didn't have a reason to tell the truth.

"No," said Nat. They looked over their shoulder. "Don't I have permission to be out of holding?" They had to, didn't they? There was no way that Madden would let them out, otherwise. Not unless he was crooked, or he just wanted Nat gone that much, or…

Well, he probably had a few reasons. But he'd wanted answers out of Nat so badly and Nat yet to answer any of his questions. So why toss them to the wolves?

"Technically," said Seung, her tone absent. "But MERCY does what MERCY wants, unfortunately. Not a fan of them, myself." Neither was Nat. They kind of liked that Seung wasn’t either. Like the two had a common enemy.

Seung hummed, her expression neutral in the rear-view mirror and her gaze alternating between Nat, the MERCY car behind them, and the traffic jam not far ahead. "Would you like to meet another metahuman?"

Nat's eyes widened. Was Seung one? Did she have a power? Or maybe Giovanni did. Why else would she ask such a question? "More than anything," they replied. Nat had never met another metahuman before. How would they differ? How would they be the same?

"Good," said Seung. She floored the gas. The car rocketed forward, speeding ever faster toward the traffic jam ahead of them. Nat threw their arms up in front of them, bracing for the inevitable crash, and—

Nothing happened. A tingling went through Nat's entire body. They opened their eyes and gasped. The car, Seung, and Nat, were passing _through_ the traffic jam like it wasn't even there. Flickering forms of people and their cars passed around and through Nat, but Nat couldn't feel any of them. They couldn't even feel themself. It was like they weren't really there, instead just floating.

The car broke free of the traffic jam and slowed. The tingling disappeared from Nat and everything grew solid once more, letting Nat settle back into the seat.

"What _was_ that?" asked Nat, staring at Seung through the mirror.

Her lips twitched into a sly smile. "Intangibility," she replied.

Nat blinked. "What?" Homeschooling hadn't ever taught them that particular word. Tangible meant something you could hold, Nat knew that much. In- probably made it opposite. Something you couldn't hold? What kind of power was that?

"I can pass through solid objects," said Seung. "Myself and anything I'm holding, as if they weren't there at all. No one is harmed in the process, don't worry." Nat hadn't even thought about that possibility. "I'm quite partial to wandering through closed doors and walls, to be honest."

A smile split across Nat's face before they could stop it. "You're like a ghost!" they said, their voice light. A light laugh passed through their lips, shaking the words. "That's incredible."

Seung nodded. "Indeed." She was smiling too. More and more, it was hard to fear Seung, especially after such a display and the little laugh she gave when she spotted Nat’s smile.

The car pulled up to a curb and stopped. Seung turned it off and undid her seatbelt before casting a glance over her shoulder to Nat. "Well?" she asked. "Are you coming?" The amusement and smile were still there, beckoning Nat forward.

Nat undid their own belt and opened the door, practically leaping out of the car and onto the sidewalk. Seung joined them seconds later, shutting both the doors as she did.

"Welcome to VaCorp," said Seung, nodding toward the building in front of them. She put her sunglasses back on and tossed her hair over her shoulder with the sort of practiced ease Nat had only ever seen in commercials. Her high-heels click-clacked on the concrete as she strode toward the tall, glass doors, her chin held high and her shoulders relaxed.

Nat hurried after her, their head tilting far back to see the building they were walking in to. It was the spiralling building Nat had seen earlier. A giant skyscraper that almost felt like someone had taken the top half and bottom half and rotated them in different directions, so that halfway up, a massive curve started in the building, arching around and around to form a twisting skyscraper. The entire thing seemed to be made up of thousands of windows, each one reflecting the sun slightly differently, but all of them reflecting, so that nothing inside the building could be seen.

The buzzing in the back of their head grew stronger. Nat shook it off. They’d think about it later, when they had time to think about anything else.

"Whoa," breathed Nat. They followed Seung up a short set of stairs and through the revolving glass doors into the building.

Inside, it was just as impressive. Massive windows lined the wall with the doors. The lobby was so tall it seemed like an echo chamber. Everything was clean and white or silver or black. But it didn't seem sterile. There were plants all over the place, some grown wild along the massive steel beams that swept through the upper area of the lobby's height. Framed pictures of employees, certificates, and even children's art lined the walls, and the couches had what looked like handmade quilts and pillows tossed onto them.

At one coffee table among the couches, several children coloured alongside a woman wearing a smock. Both the woman and two of the children had prosthetic arms, two apiece. The third child had a wheelchair nearby and no legs below the knee.

"What is this place?" asked Nat, mostly to themself.

What looked like a robot zipped by, its buzzing running up Nat's spine and lingering in their ears after it passed.

"VaCorp," said Seung, again, her voice clipped but not impatient. "Engineering, technology, biochemistry, the works. If you can think of it in the tech world, VaCorp probably has it." She paused, then frowned. "Unless it's weapons. Mr. Vacilli doesn't work with weapons." She strode passed the big, white desk that had two people working at it. Both had curious looks as Nat scurried after Seung, but neither one spoke. Instead, they both went back to tapping at keyboards that seemed to be holograms and looking at computer screens that were _definitely_ floating holograms above their desk.

"This isn't real," said Nat, shaking their head as Seung stopped at a glass elevator. "This _can't_ be real."

Seung shook her head, an amused smile on her face as she looked at Nat. There wasn't a huge height difference between them, maybe two or three centimetres at most, but Seung's heels made that difference at least triple when they stood next to one another.

"Veda City's technology all comes from VaCorp, Carter," said Seung. Her eyes seemed to twinkle. The elevator dinged and opened. "We're thirty years ahead of the rest of the world, at the very least." She stepped into the elevator and Nat followed. The doors closed.

 _"Identification required,"_ chimed a computerized, feminine voice. Nat jumped, looking around for where it came from, but found nothing.

"Seung Yu, VCE dash zero, zero, one, nine," said Seung. "Visitor is Nat Carter, VCV, three, nine, one, six."

 _"Confirmed. Your destination?"_ came the voice again.

Seung glanced over at Nat. Nat only just noticed, as they were too busy turning around and around, staring at the glass elevator that seemed to have no buttons or anything else. She seemed amused, but the same way Dr. Higgins had, rather than dismissive or annoyed or patronizing.

"Penthouse," said Seung, the amusement showing in her voice.

 _"Confirmed. Please enjoy your ride,"_ said the voice. It went silent and the elevator started to rise. The glass walls meant that Nat could watch as they rose up and up through the building. They hurried over to the side and pressed their hands to the walls, their breath fogging up the glass.

It seemed like there were at least a hundred floors to the building, maybe more. The elevator showed offices, massive lounge areas, a fully functioning restaurant, more offices, and then private hallways that were obviously meant for higher ups or secret stuff. There was even a bar, Nat could see, and then even more meeting rooms, tech rooms, and more. It was like the whole building was one massive unit, all meant toward working with whatever and whoever was around.

Like a computer, or a bee hive, but instead of microchips or bees, it was people. Thousands of them, all working toward a single purpose.

It was kind of beautiful. And also terrifying. A unit like this could do _anything_ , almost. Good or bad or anything in between.

"Tell me, Carter," said Seung. She said Nat's last name like it was a regular name. Not like a curse or a way to dismiss Nat, but simply as a way to address them. "What do you think this is about?"

Nat looked over their shoulder and saw Seung watching them. They frowned, then shrugged. "No idea," they said. It could have been a few things. A way to piss off SOLDIER. A way to prove dominance over MERCY. Pissing contests were pretty popular with higher ups, or so Nat had always assumed. Maybe Giovanni just wanted to see who Nat was. Maybe he'd just heard the rumours. Or maybe he wanted to personally make Nat's life a living hell.

Whatever it was, Nat was powerless, stuck in a small glass elevator with a woman they barely knew, and yet, while they were worried, they weren't _scared._ All the terror of their initial capture was gone. Whatever happened to Nat now couldn't be worse than living out the rest of their life in a dirty, cold, tiny ass prison cell three stories below ground.

And, more than that, there was something about Seung that should have been terrifying but wasn't. Nat hadn’t been able to place it in the car, but now, they thought they could.

Seung was a strange woman, most definitely dangerous, and a little worrying, but Nat didn't think any of that danger was turned toward them. In fact, Seung almost treated Nat like… like…

Like the siblings they'd seen at the group homes. Like she knew exactly what Nat was going through. Like there was nothing in this world she wanted more than to show Nat that they weren't alone, that they didn't have to be afraid.

It was _nice._ Nat wasn't sure how much they believed, but they figured if they were going back into lock-up after this, despite what D'Angelo had said, they might as well enjoy it. And Seung? Well. Seung seemed pretty damn cool.

And pretty damn familiar. Like looking in a mirror, some ten years in the future. And Nat had a feeling Seung saw the opposite - herself, ten years prior - when she looked at Nat. It was in the way she looked at Nat, with amusement and concern and something like respect.

The elevator stopped and dinged. The doors slid open. Seung left first and Nat peeled their gaze away from the now-darkened glass of the elevator. They followed after Seung into, what Nat presumed, was Giovanni Vacilli's penthouse.

If Nat had thought the book in their hoodie pocket was fancy, it was nothing compared to the penthouse. The hallway they were in led out to a room with a solid wall of windows. Holographic projections of screens like the ones in the lobby were all over the place. The couches had books, throw pillows, quilts, and wires tossed about them. The kitchen was shiny like the outside of building, but made of dark wood and gleaming counters. And all of it just struck Nat as completely, unnecessarily, fancy.

But, for a man richer than god, he didn't seem to have a cleaner, if the books and bits of tech everywhere were any indication.

"Seung, is that you?" came a voice from another room. A moment later, a man that Nat assumed _had_ to be Giovanni Vacilli appeared to the right, through the hallway that was off the living room. He was an Asian man with short, messy hair and stubble much subtler and better kept than Madden's. A pair of metal goggles were in his hair, messing it up. His button-down was smeared with what looked like oil and ash. His face lit up with a massive smile when he caught sight of Nat.

"Mx. Carter, I presume," he murmured, looking Nat up and down. There was a sense of wonder in his eyes, like a kid who'd just met a mall Santa, or someone finding faith for the first time in a decade. "It is truly an honour."

Nat flushed, taking a step back. There was nothing creepy about his gaze, but it set Nat on edge regardless. The title was new, though Nat knew from their limited Googling that it was the proper title for them. But it was a sign of respect no other adult had given them, not ever.

"Hi?" tried Nat. It came out as a question. They bit the inside of their cheek and rubbed the back of their neck. "Um. Yeah, it's me." They gave a little gesture to themself with their other arm. "Ta-da."

Seung gave a noise that was probably a stifled snort. She looked away from Nat when Nat looked up at her, one hand over her mouth.

"Come in, come in. Please, take a seat." Giovanni swept through the room, pulling things off the over-sized and ornate armchair that was near what looked like a glass fireplace. He gestured to the chair and Nat, with another look at Seung, who nodded, and a great deal of hesitation, shuffled over to the chair and lowered themself in to it. They pressed their knees together, their legs jiggling a bit from the pressure Nat put on their toes. They clasped their hands in their lap, unsure what else to do, and looked around as Giovanni scuttled off into the kitchen, which was in front of them.

The floating holograms had images on them that shifted and flickered every few seconds. The holograms themselves were tinted blue, but the images were all the right colours. Images of kids, of buildings, of what looked like blueprints and schematics, all zipped by, some in focus and some not.

"What's in your pocket?" asked Seung, leaning over the back of the couch that was between Nat and the kitchen. Nat blinked, looking up at Seung, who nodded toward Nat's hoodie pocket. When Nat looked down, they realized the book had mostly fallen out of their pocket. They pulled it the rest of the way out and held it in their hands.

Giovanni looked up in the kitchen, eyes narrowed, and came back toward Nat, extending his hand to them. "May I see?" he asked. "I won't hurt it, I promise."

Hesitantly, Nat handed him the book. Giovanni turned it over and over in his hands. After a moment, he pulled it open, a furrow to his brow, and cursed under his breath.

Shaking his head, he closed the book and held it in both hands, nodding with his lips pressed tightly together. "Well, I'll be damned. He really _does_ think I should go through with this."

Nat blinked. "What?" they asked. "Who? Why?" The questions slipped out, quick and quiet, before Nat could stop them. They ducked their head, looking up at Giovanni through their bangs, and tried not to say anything else. Whatever was going on, it was probably best if Nat didn't screw it up.

"This is my book. I'd wondered where it'd gone," said Giovanni. "The inscription is from my fiancé, Tony." _GV._ Giovanni Vacilli. Nat nodded. It made sense. But then, how had it ended up in their cell? "I have a feeling I know how you got it, too."

"I just found it in my cell," said Nat. They frowned. "I don't know how it got there! You can keep it." The words came out in a rush, panic quickening Nat’s heartbeat. It was stupid to say, of course he'd want to keep it. It was his book.

Giovanni only chuckled, a warm sound that had him ducking his head and shaking it a bit. "Oh, I'll definitely be putting it back on my shelf. We can get you another copy, if you'd like." Nat gave a slow, confused nod. They hadn't managed to finish the book. But why did he want to buy Nat a book? Surely, he had better things to do.

And Nat still don't know why they were here.

"Who's 'he'?" asked Nat.

Giovanni smiled, as warm and genuine a smile as Nat had ever seen. "A friend. You'll meet him soon enough, I suspect, if this is any indication." He patted the cover a few times before setting the book down on the couch. "Though, it's best if he introduces himself to you. Otherwise, you might think I'm crazy." He winked, and Nat frowned. Crazy? After everything that had happened in the last week, Nat highly doubted that. It seemed like anything was possible, right now.

One of the holographic screens floated by behind Giovanni’s head. It read ‘September 25th, 2017.’ That must have been today’s date. Nat had been in lock-up since the 21st, then, and captured a few days before that.

"Now, I'm sure you're curious as to why I've called you here today," said Giovanni, clapping his hands together.

"A little," said Nat, their voice calm. It was a lot more than a little, but Giovanni didn't need to know that. Not yet, anyway.

He grinned at Nat. "Well, to put it frankly: I'd like to give you a second chance." He gestured wide, the holograms all switching over to the various charges Nat had been accused of by Madden. They swallowed. How did he have all of this? This couldn't be legal. Or maybe it was. Were there rules when you owned a massive part of a city and had that much money and power?

"You see, I believe most of your crimes were committed in self-defence. The rest, well, you're a minor. I contacted SOLDIER on your behalf and discussed this at great length with them." He started pacing the living room, the holograms all fading away. The windows took on a bit of a grey tint as the sun shone through them, stopping the glare but not the light.

"They've agreed to allow me to take custody of you, as your guardian, providing a few things." He beamed at Nat. Custody? Guardian? Like a foster parent? Nat shook their head, blinking hard a few times. "I'd have to pay quite a fine — not a problem, of course — and I'd be responsible for any actions you commit while in Veda City." He frowned a bit, then continued, his words tripping over themselves on the way out. "But I like to think it's a better option than what you're currently facing. SOLDIER doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get you a lawyer, and if they don't, they can hold you as long as they want under some damned archaic law about those being a danger to themselves and others." Giovanni scoffed. "Of course, they're completely incorrect. You're wearing inhibitor cuffs and a tranquilizer collar. You're no more dangerous than any other homeless teenager right now."

Nat blinked again, trying to keep up with how quickly he spoke. Giovanni's arms moved around and around, waving and gesturing as he spoke.

"I shouldn't even know you're in Veda City, but they can't exactly stop the rumour mill, now can they?" Giovanni waggled his eyebrows at Nat. Nat fought the urge to snicker, pressing a hand to their mouth to hide their smile. Despite their confusion, that face was still hilarious. "I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm not even asking you to be around me. I just want to give you a way to live outside that damned cell, so you can go to school, make friends, and live your life." He hesitated, and Nat saw something calculating in his expression. Whatever he said next would probably be his trump card. Some kind of threat or argument or something to make Nat think they had no other choice.

"And," said Giovanni, slowly. "I can start the process of having those," he nodded to the cuffs, which were visible as Nat had moved their sleeves up when they'd stuffed their hands in their hoodie pocket, "and that," he nodded to the collar, "removed from you so you can have access to your powers again."

Nat blinked. _What?_ No. There was no way. When MERCY had finally gotten the damned things on Nat, after Nat had destroyed a bunch of them, they'd promised Nat that they would never come off. That their powers were gone forever.

"I…" Nat froze, unsure how to finish that sentence. They ducked their head, shaking it. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," said Giovanni. He came forward and got to his knees, crouching in front of Nat. He was in arm's reach, but he didn’t touch them. Instead, he tilted his head, so Nat could look at him. "Not now. I've gotten permission to keep you out of holding until midnight. Take a walk in the city, see what it has to offer, and think about it." He smiled at Nat, the gesture so soft that Nat almost couldn’t believe it was real. "Seung can guide you around, or you can go on your own." A pause, then, "I wouldn't recommend leaving the city. That collar is a direct link to MERCY. They'll know when you cross the border."

Nat swallowed and nodded, unsure what else to do.

"I've got a card, here," said Giovanni. He dug into his back pocket and pulled out a credit card with a picture of the building on it. "Take it. It's got your name on it." Sure enough, in raised letters at the bottom was 'NAT CARTER'. "It's attached to my personal accounts. Take some time today to go see if you want to stay in Veda City. Buy yourself something, go see the ocean. Whatever you want to do." He reached out and put a hand on Nat's knee. Nat didn't move away from him.

Giovanni smiled. "All I ask is that you think about what I've said. If you don't like my offer, you can go back to holding. I'm sure Madden and whoever else is on your side will find a way to get you free, sooner or later. But, if you like my option, simply give me a call." He tapped the credit card. On the back, Nat saw when they turned it over, was a hand-written phone number in tiny letters. "And I'll set everything up."

He got to his feet and stepped away from Nat, clasping his hands together. "What do you say, Mx. Carter? Would you like to take in the sights today?"

Nat took a long moment to think about it. A day in the city? No pressure? It was too good to be true. But Giovanni seemed like a nice enough guy, and Nat couldn't think of any good reason he'd do this to hurt Nat. Maybe to hurt SOLDIER, or MERCY, but not Nat. Nat might have been a pawn, but they were a well-treated one, at least. One that had some semblance of choice and independence, despite everything.

They curled their fingers tighter into the credit card. One day in the city. Anything Nat wanted. They could scour out exits. They could see metahuman abilities at work. They could finally see the world that they'd thought, for so long, would be a second home to them, if they ever had the courage to leave Alaska.

A way to see Veda City without any sort of cost. After that, they could just go back to holding. Just like that. As if nothing had ever happened.

And maybe, if they got a second chance to escape, scouring the city would help them get away. Or maybe, and it was a very, very small part of them acknowledging this maybe, maybe they'd stay out of holding. Maybe they'd agree to Giovanni's deal. Maybe they'd find another way to escape.

Could they really refuse such a chance?

Nat got to their feet, the credit card held tightly in their right hand. They lifted their chin and looked Giovanni in the eye. He was tall, taller than Seung in her heels and taller than anyone else Nat had seen the city so far.

"Okay," they said. "I'll take the day to think about it."

Giovanni beamed at Nat. He raised his arms into the air and laughed, grinning. "Excellent! Seung, go with them. They've got quite the bit of land to cover." Giovanni gave a sweeping bow to Nat, before straightening and gesturing to the door. "Enjoy yourself, Mx. Carter. I look forward to hearing your decision."

With a nod, Nat followed Seung down the hallway and into the elevator.

"So, where to?" asked Seung.

Nat thought about it for a long minute. Then, their stomach growled, and Nat knew where they were going. "Burgers," they said. "No restaurants. I want the best burgers you can get on the street."

Seung smiled. "I know just the place."

The elevator door opened and, just like that, Nat was on their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, questions, concerns, and constructive criticisms are welcome!


	5. Cityscape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay! I've been dealing with health related stuff, but I've been trucking along. Fun facts about this chapter: originally, it ended much later on, but I ended up having to split it. So, now, chapter 5 is chapter 5 _and_ chapter 6. Nat's adventures in the city are kind of important to the development, so we get more of them!

Seung drove Nat back down the busy streets of Veda City, following the twists and turns of the roads and leading them down into an area they hadn't passed through before. The buildings were shorter here, most of them multi-level stores with fancy signs and glass fronts with intricate displays that Nat couldn't make out even with the slowed pace of the car.

Despite the slower speed, it was a short ride, and Nat was too busy looking at the people that bustled back and forth, the children and preteens running around in the small patches of grass and on the sidewalks they passed, and the growing number of trees and plants that lined the wider, brighter sidewalks, to think about much else, or talk about much at all.

"What is this?" asked Nat. The steel and glass and chrome of the rest of the city they'd seen so far was just a backdrop behind the brick and mortar buildings with their glass fronts. Long, thin parks were tucked into the pockets between the buildings. Even the street lamps and cars looked a little bit older, almost like they were out of a storybook, instead of right in front of Nat.

"Family residential area," said Seung. She pulled into a spot on the side of the road between two family sized cars. One red, the other, grey. "High class, low density. One of the few in Central." The car clicked off, barely noticeable for how silent it already was. "It also happens to have some of the best street food in the city."

Nat perked at the mention of food. "Really?" they asked, following Seung as she climbed out of the car. The doors slammed shut behind them. A few cars passed through the streets, but between it being sometime in mid-afternoon and it being a weekday, it seemed most people, other than those on foot, were elsewhere.

Across the street, on the far side of the sidewalk, was a slab of concrete dotted with patches of grass that held a handful of leafy, green trees. Beneath those trees were benches, most of them filled with bouncing kids, sprawling teens, or parents that ranged from exhausted to enthused. There were a couple of strollers mixed in, but no crying babies that Nat could hear. Maybe they were happy, or napping, or just couldn't be heard over the shrieking kids.

"Really," said Seung. She led them across the street and headed over to a food truck that had a small group of people crowded around it. They all were holding wrappers or pieces of paper. They milled about and chatted with one another. For a moment, as Nat and Seung approached, their words grew hushed and they stared openly at the two.

Nat hunched their shoulders and ducked their head, not looking at any of the well-dressed people who were staring. Seung, on the other hand, lifted her chin and stared them down. The group parted and Seung walked up to the opening in the truck. She drummed her fingers against the metal of the truck, frowning.

Nat scurried up to her, squinting up at the menus. They were mostly pictures, which was nice, because Nat didn't think they could parse out half the words on the menu. Everything seemed kind of blurry and off-kilter. Probably just hunger and nerves. Sort of how they worked, anyway.

"Any preferences?" asked Seung, casting a glance to Nat. Her voice was lower, barely audible in the noise of the area.

Nat shrugged. "Cheeseburger?" They didn't care about condiments or anything of the sort. They just wanted _meat._ It had been a while since they'd been able to eat fresh meat. Where they'd lived, it was mostly fish and jerky. Not that Nat was complaining about food. Food, in all its forms, was a godsend, and something they were far, far too used to going without.

Seung's fingers danced in the air, twitching into symbols Nat knew almost as well as they knew spoken words. Sign language, slightly modified, but there all the same. Nat caught themself smiling as the man in the truck signed back, before turning to make their food.

"You know sign language?" asked Nat, following Seung as she walked away from the truck, holding a white slip of paper.

Seung nodded. "I have to. I couldn't speak for the better part of three years." She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and sat down on a bench beneath a large, leafy tree. Nat sat down next to her.

"Why not?" they asked, cocking their head to one side. Above them, a bird sang, its notes mixing with the sound of the breeze in the leaves. The smell of cinnamon, from beaver tails in a nearby truck, and charcoal, from the grills that cooked the meat, surrounded Nat, but they couldn't quite block out the smell of the flowering trees nearby. Sweet and savoury all at once.

"I was mute," said Seung. She leaned back against the bench and closed her eyes, tipping her head back. The few rays of sun that broke through the trees graced her face and she smiled. "Giovanni helped me recover from my past and, in doing so, taught me a new language. While I have largely regained the use of my voice, I find that sign language is far more beautiful." She tilted her head toward Nat, eyes opening a bit. "Do you know it?"

Nat nodded, but didn't elaborate.

It was a short wait for their food. Nat wouldn't have minded if it were longer. It gave them time to enjoy being outside. The gentle breeze tickled their hair and brushed their skin, featherlight. The bench was sun-warmed beneath them, and the shifting leaves above them had sunlight flickering across their skin, warming them and flashing brightness that Nat had feared they'd never see again.

One day in the sun. One day of freedom, unless Nat decided to take Giovanni up on his offer. Nat wasn't sure they wanted to. Sure, he seemed nice, and Seung was _awesome,_ but Nat still didn't know anything about either of them, or the city, or even why they were in Veda to begin with. They had so many questions, but even if Giovanni and Seung both _seemed_ like they wanted to help, they hadn't exactly been forthcoming in answering those questions, either.

Not that Nat had really had a chance to actually ask any of those questions. They'd mostly just been trying to understand what the hell Giovanni was saying, and how Seung had phased them through a ton of cars, and who the mysterious 'he' that Giovanni had spoken of was.

Too many questions. And it seemed every interaction, every place, every person, added a thousand more to that list of questions, rather than getting rid of any of them.

"Penny for your thoughts?" asked Seung. Nat started, casting a glance to Seung, who watched Nat with her head tilted back, her eyes half-lidded, and an amused look on her face.

Nat flushed. "Thought Canada didn't have pennies." They cast a glance toward the food trucks and stands. A couple of kids ran by with a kite, laughing. Nat felt a pang in their heart. They'd never flown a kite before.

"A nickel then, or a loonie, whichever you prefer." Seung shrugged, a casual roll of her shoulders that was so smooth, so practiced, that Nat wondered how she managed it. "You seem troubled."

Nat folded their arms across their chest and frowned, gaze sliding across the people in the courtyard. They all seemed so happy, so untroubled, as if they had never faced the dangers of the world. A car could swerve off the road and slam into any one of them. People with incredible abilities or weapons could come striding up without a care as to who they hurt. They could be taken; they could be in an accident; they could be irreversibly hurt and damaged in a moment, yet none of them seemed to care. It was like everyone in the courtyard was just focused on this moment, this day, this breath, as if nothing that came before or after would harm them.

Was that innocence, or ignorance? To not know of the evils of the world? Or were they simply the same thing with different definitions to hide the cruelty of being stripped of both?

"What does Giovanni want with me?" asked Nat, casting their gaze to Seung. She raised both eyebrows at them, but that was the extent of her reaction. Was she practiced, or had she simply expected the question? Or perhaps it wasn't surprising. "He talked a lot about how he could help me, but not how I'd be helping him."

Seung sat up properly, crossing one knee over the other and resting both hands on the higher knee. "What makes you think he needs a reason?"

"No one does anything selflessly." Nat's tone was bitter. Across the courtyard, a child fell and let out a shaky sob. Another helped them up and the two ran off together, holding hands. "That's not how the world works."

"Cynical," said Seung.

Nat chewed on the inside of their cheek. "No, just a realist."

"I've met far more pessimists who believe themselves to be realists, than optimists who believe the same," replied Seung. She hummed and drummed the fingers of one hand across the back of the other. "But, I'll give you it this time, Giovanni does have his reasons, though I promise you, none of them are nefarious." Nat raised an eyebrow at Seung, who sighed and continued. "Giovanni has always had a soft spot for troubled teens - it's a large part of why I'm with him now." Seung flipped a stray hair out of her face. "And he lost someone, a daughter, a few years ago." Nat blinked. _What?_ "You remind him of her."

"I'm not—" started Nat.

"He knows." Seung sighed and lifted one hand, running her fingers through her hair. "Believe me, he knows you aren't." She shook her head and pressed her lips together. "But you remind him of her, in some ways. Your tendency to get into trouble, your ability to fight, and your tenacity." Seung's lips twitched up on one side. Nat frowned. "He misses her, dearly, and while he knows he cannot replace her, his need to help those in difficult positions is amplified when said people are troubled teenagers with foggy pasts and a tendency toward bad decisions." Seung raised her eyebrows at Nat. "Sound familiar?"

Nat scoffed. "Yeah." The burger food truck guy rang a bell and Seung got up. Nat didn't follow her. Instead, they watched a pair of preteens talking animatedly with one another across the way. One sat on a bench, next to a wheelchair, and the other was dangling down from a tree branch above the bench. As Nat watched, the one in the tree fell and, before they could hit the ground, the kid stopped in midair and lowered themself slowly to the ground, standing up as they did so.

_Woah._

Nat watched as the kid laughed and helped their friend into the wheelchair. Then, the two were off and running, the manual chair moving of its own accord and the kid that had floated holding out one hand, presumably controlling it.

"Here," said Seung. She had reappeared while Nat had watched the two preteens. She held out the wrapped burger to Nat, a cocked head and a twist of her lips betraying her curiosity. "See something interesting?"

"How many people in this city have meta abilities?" asked Nat, taking the offered burger.

Seung hummed, pursing her lips and furrowing her brow as she unwrapped her burger. Her gaze slid upward, toward the leaves that drifted in the breeze above them, and she blinked in a slow, deliberate movement.

"I think we're over half a million, at this point, so a little less than a quarter of the city," said Seung. "Though the exact numbers are hard to gather, as we get new metas all the time, and considering the number of unregistered metas that run around the criminal underground."

Nat snorted.

"What?" asked Seung.

"Knew this place wasn't perfect." Nat bit into their burger with a sense of triumph. Instantly, the taste of fresh meat, cheese, and unknown spices washed across them. Nat groaned and slumped against the bench, revelling in the richness of each taste and how it all blended together. The fresh bun, the crisp lettuce, the sharpness of the relish and mustard mixed with the sweetness of the grilled onions and ketchup. It was _heavenly._ Nat couldn't remember the last time they'd had pickles, and they'd never had pickles this good.

"Good?" asked Seung, a teasing tone to her voice.

Nat couldn't bring themself to care. They just nodded and kept eating, heedless of whether or not stuffing their face would make them sick or look like an idiot.

"I was thinking, when we were finished, it might be a good idea to take you shopping," said Seung, in that sort of calculated, absent way that adults had when they weren't really giving you a choice. "You could certainly use some new clothes, and perhaps a few other things, regardless of your decision tonight."

Nat thought about it for a long moment. Clothes were probably a good idea, especially with the incoming winter. If they wanted to get back to Alaska, they'd need winter gear and, if it was all Giovanni's money, rather than Nat's own, then it certainly wouldn't hurt to be prepared. Plus, it would give them a better look at the city and its fashions. Blending in would be key for sneaking out or around.

Regardless of their decision tonight.

"Sure," said Nat, taking another bite of their burger. "Why not?"

~*~*~

Malls were, in Nat's newly formed opinion, the centre of all that was wrong and evil in the world at large. The Veda Central Mall was a massive, four storey, metal, concrete, and glass monstrosity that packed in thousands of people, creating an echo chamber of noise, smell, and imagery that had Nat dizzy before they even stepped two feet into one of the numerous, too small entrances that littered the outside of the seemingly impenetrable fortress.

Also: it didn't have nearly enough windows. If there was a fire, or an explosion, or anything of the sort, most of the people inside would be doomed, and, frankly, that seemed like a massive and terrible design flaw.

"Not fond of malls?" asked Seung. She watched as Nat's hands flinched at their sides as Nat suppressed the urge to cover their ears with them. _God_ , whose idea had it been to create these hellholes? Surely it was the work of some sadist with too much time and money on their hands.

"Noise," muttered Nat. They cast a glance across the entrance they'd walked through. Big open halls filled with people, lined with open store fronts that were half glass fronts with big displays and bigger signs and half oversized doors that still seemed too small for the number of people that milled about all of them.

It was more than just the noise, though. More than the smell, the lingering taste of cleaning products, sweat, and over-salted fries that clung to their tongue and left them grimacing and shaking their head. There was an undercurrent of emptiness that cut Nat to their core. A gap where the static electricity of the place should have been. Thousands of people meant thousands of phones. Hundreds of stores meant generators, power lines, wi-fi, and more. Yet, there was nothing.

The cuffs on Nat's wrists hummed as Nat rubbed them. Both the cuffs and collar were hidden in their current clothes, but only just. A secret reminder of their loss. Nat grimaced and tried to shake off the feeling of helplessness that threatened to swallow them whole.

How did people do it? Non-metas, that was. How did they walk around like this, with the knowledge that anyone could hurt them, that thousands of people in this city could raise a hand to hurt them? Or maybe they simply didn't know that feeling, because they'd never known power to begin with. Maybe, for those at the bottom, the idea of _more_ was some insurmountable goal, some crazy dream, rather than a reality that had been ripped away from them without warning.

Nat looked to Seung, who watched them curiously. _Although_ , Seung had only said there were so many metas in the city, not that they were on par with Seung's power, or Nat's own. Perhaps most metas weren't that powerful.

More questions. Far more than answers, and more building by the second. They needed a way to study the city. Preferably without surveillance. As much as they liked Seung, though they wondered at that, now, with how Seung, despite her answers, seemed to dodge around the finer details of Nat's questions. Did Seung like Nat, or had she simply been assigned to them?

Or maybe Nat was being paranoid.

But then again, was it really paranoia, after everything, or just caution?

How was it they’d phrased it to their group home manager? Was it paranoia, if everyone really _was_ out to get you? He’d called them delusional. As it turned out, Nat was right. Everyone really _was_ out to get them.

"Shall we?" asked Seung, striding forward. Nat blinked, falling out of their thoughts, and followed after Seung, who strode through the mall with a sort of crowd-parting purpose that Nat couldn't fathom how to recreate. "I was thinking… jeans? Maybe a jacket?" asked Seung.

Nat's gaze slid across the halls. Two exits; a staircase leading to the basement parking garage, most likely; maybe another exit through the larger department store that took up the space of at least four other stores and seemed to span multiple stories.

The buzzing started again, as if cued by Nat’s thoughts.

"Nat?"

Cameras in the ceiling and in the corners. No buzzing from them. Buzzing elsewhere. In their head, like a drill was being forced between their eyes and pushed inward until it forced the buzzing into their very soul. Nat twitched, head swinging around.

They stopped moving. It was the buzzing from the city again. The buzzing when they'd crossed the border. The buzzing when they'd been in the car with Seung. Where was it coming from? Why was it here? What was causing it?

"Nat?"

Nat put their hands on the sides of their head and curled inward on themself, bending forward to pull their arms and head close to their chest. The buzzing grew worse, spreading down their arms and into their cuffs. It creaked and hummed and shrieked beneath their skin, pulling at their bones and pulsating in their blood. The cuffs burned, screaming into their skin and biting, clawing, until Nat could almost _taste_ them.

Louder and louder, until it turned to ringing and drowned out everything else. Until they fell deeper and deeper, swimming, drowning, in the noise and feel and taste of the horrible, awful buzzing.

"Nat?"

"Shut up!" shouted Nat.

The lights above them exploded.

One, then another, then another, spreading out like a ripple in a pond until half a dozen lights, a storey and a half above Nat all rained glass down around Nat and the other patrons.

They stared. People stared at Nat. The whole world seemed to close in around them.

"Nat." Seung's voice. A hand on their shoulder. Pulled aside from the crowd, which was starting to part. People moved, still murmuring, still staring. A cylindrical robot with a mop/broom/duster _thing_ for a bottom zipped up and started cleaning up the glass, spouting warnings to those around them.

Nat blinked. The world seemed slow, unsteady, as if it could all fall apart at any given moment.

"Look at me." Seung's voice seemed far away. The glass particles glittered in the sunlight from the glass ceiling, so far above them. The glass danced like glitter in the air, almost frozen in time. "Look at me." Hands on their face, guiding their eyes back toward Seung. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes big and soft. Lines in her face, around her eyes and her mouth. Her fingers trembled against Nat's skin.

"Look at me." Firmer now, fearful. Nat blinked. Seung focused. "How did you do that?"

Nat blinked again. "Do what?" they asked. Their tongue felt heavy in their mouth, the world still tilting and shifting around them. Seung seemed to be the only solid thing in the world. The only piece Nat could hang on to. So they clung, adrift in the endless sea of input that they couldn't block out, to the only thing that made sense.

"You broke the lights," said Seung. Her words were slow, but Nat still only barely understood them. "With your powers, you broke the lights, and I’d wager the cameras as well."

Nat blinked a third time. "I can't use my powers."

"Except you just _did."_ The firmness, the insistence, had Nat frowning. More things came into focus, the world started to move around them again. The little cleaning bots beeped and whirred, giving out generic warnings in generic voices that Nat only barely caught. They blinked once more and found most things returning to them. Smells, sounds, sights, tastes.

"How?" asked Nat.

Seung leaned back against from Nat, settling on her heels. "I don't know." She frowned and looked away, lifting one hand to tug at a strand of hair. "But if you can use your powers, at least to the extent you just did—"

"But I can't," protested Nat. "I can't use them at all. I've _tried_." And oh, they had tried. When the cuffs had first been snapped on them, when they'd been tossed into MERCY's armoured truck, when Mera had first stepped into the back, and even in interrogation with Madden, in their alone time in the cell, and in the hallway, being led out of the precinct. Over and over, they had tried, but nothing had ever come to the surface. Until now.

Nat lifted one hand and stared at it. There was a thin black line running across their palm and up the middle finger on their left hand. Nat wiped at it with their right hand and the mark disappeared. Ash. Like from an electrical discharge that had burned something. An old sign of their powers, when they'd first started. But it had been a few years since they'd screwed up badly enough to burn themself.

And the red mark beneath the black ash meant they had definitely burned themself.

Almost like their grounding wasn't working. Like one part of their powers had temporarily overridden the cuffs but the rest had still been trapped.

Nat frowned.

"Whatever it is, we need to make sure you can't do it again," said Seung, her voice firm.

"Why not?" asked Nat, head snapping up to look at Seung. "I want my powers back."

"But the city doesn't." There was a level of desperation to Seung's voice that had Nat staring. What was going on? "And if you can break the cuffs, then they're not going to be satisfied until they can put another leash on you, Nat. Until you can prove yourself, you _can't_ have your powers. You can't freak out like that again. You can't give anyone a reason to think you aren't completely under SOLDIER and MERCY's thumb. Do you understand me?" Seung's hands came up to grasp Nat's shoulders, firm enough to hurt. "They will lock you up, do you understand?"

"Lock me up?" echoed Nat.

Seung nodded. The fear was so naked in her eyes, in her expression, in her _words_ that it seeped into Nat and left them cold and shaking. "I've been in Sanctum exactly once in my entire life, Nat, and I will die before I let someone I care about end up there." Her voice cracked, and she looked away. Nat lifted a hand and rested it atop Seung's.

"Okay," said Nat, but they didn’t understand, not really. Not at all. "No trying for powers. I swear."

Seung smiled at Nat, but the fear was still there. "Thank you." She cleared her throat and shifted back, looking embarrassed. "Now, let's get you some clothes, shall we?" She got to her feet and held out a hand to Nat. Nat took it and allowed Seung to pull them to their feet.

"Let's go," said Nat.

~*~*~

The store Seung took Nat to was one without gender markers or division. Clothing was organized by style - sleeve length, fabric, etc., - and size. Nat appreciated that. They also appreciated Seung beelining toward the jeans and hoodies in the back.

Nat watched, hanging back a few steps, as Seung muttered to herself and picked at clothing that lined the back wall and the steel tables. Twice, a worker meandered over to the two, but Seung shooed both women away and kept working, never saying a word loud enough to be heard by anyone but herself.

It was only after ten minutes, by Nat's internal clock, that Seung finally stopped muttering and pacing and came back over to Nat, her arms laden down with pants, shirts, hoodies, and something black at the bottom that Nat couldn't see properly.

"Leave the thing at the bottom for last. It's a surprise," said Seung. She winked. "But I think you'll like it." She gestured for Nat to follow her and Nat did, trailing behind Seung toward an archway on the back wall, which led to a hallway, perpendicular to the archway, that was filled with dressing rooms.

"This okay?" asked Seung. Nat nodded, eyes trailing over the sign for the fire exit, and then toward the pair of windows high above the dressing rooms, which stared out on the sunny day.

Seung piled the clothing in her arms into Nat's and led them to the far dressing room. There, Nat closed and locked the door, separating themself from Seung and slowly, shakily, hesitantly, pulled off their layers.

The mirrors on two of the walls of the change room seemed to watch them as they stripped down, revealing the patchwork of scars and bruises that littered their skin. Most of it was already healing, but the scars remained. Paler marks on darker skin that had Nat grimacing and turning away from the mirrors. There were two in particular that Nat had always hated — the burn scar on their back, a starburst between their hips that they only saw on rare occasions, and the coiled line of a scar that wrapped around their upper thigh. Nat didn't know where either of them came from, but there was a taste of fear on their tongue whenever they saw either.

All the clothes fit well enough and Nat didn't really have any idea what kind of style would look good. They were sturdy clothes, meant for movement and protection. Things that would blend in without giving up function for camouflage.

Nat dressed quickly, swapping from one outfit to the next with little pause except to check that everything fit and looked all right. But their thoughts weren't on the clothes, but instead on Seung's words from earlier. She'd been so scared, so frantic, when she'd thought Nat could use their powers. But Nat couldn't, that was the entire purpose of the cuffs and collar.

And what was Sanctum? And why had Seung been there? In all of Nat's secret TV watching, they'd never heard about a place called Sanctum. Was it a lab in Veda City? Or another lock-up facility? It was something bad, that much was clear.

"Nat?" Seung called through the door. "How's everything fit?"

"Fine," Nat called back. They frowned in the mirror, tucking the worn and stained dog tags they wore beneath the new shirt, and kept rolling over the idea in their mind. Sanctum. Powers. Seung's fear. Giovanni's proposal. Giovanni's lost daughter. Nat caught up in the middle of it all, trapped in a city like a rat in a maze.

They needed to do something on their own. Something with no one else pulling the strings, but what?

"What about the last thing?" Seung called again.

Nat looked down at the pile of clothes they'd been sorting through and pulled out the item on the bottom. As they did, something warm spread through their chest as they looked at it.

A black leather jacket. Simple, but gorgeous, and absolutely unnecessary, but _god_ if it wasn't awesome to look at.

Nat shrugged it on atop the thinner hoodie they were wearing. It fit perfectly, like it had been made for them.

They stared at themself in the mirror. At the boots, the jeans, the hoodie, the jacket. The slicked back hair and the silver chain of the dog tags. At the collar that looked more like a choker and at the ends of the sleeves, which hid the cuffs.

Nat lifted one hand, palm up, and focused on the low buzzing they could hear in the back of their mind. The same buzzing that had consumed them for days, ever since they passed into Veda City. They focused on it as closely as they could, allowing it to swallow them, until nothing else could penetrate it.

Their fingers sparked, electricity crackling the surface of their skin. Nat smirked, meeting their gaze in their reflection, and closed their hand, putting out the electricity.

A city filled with the most high-tech machinery and electronics in the world. Nullifiers that worked off of electrical signals in the body. And Nat, with their electricity-based powers.

Of course the cuffs and collar wouldn't work long term. Nat couldn't believe they hadn't realized it earlier. Sure, it was only the barest spark. Sure, it hurt their head to do it, burned their fingertips, but they weren't _powerless_ , which was what was important. They had just a little bit of their power back. And even a little was enough to help. Enough to do something.

And if they could use it to break down the cuffs, the collar, even if it took a while, then they could escape. They could be free.

"Perfect," said Nat. They grabbed their old clothes, their other new clothes, and left the dressing room.

"All good?" asked Seung. Nat nodded. "Good." Her gaze sept across Nat and she smiled. "You look great."

"I feel great," said Nat, smiling crookedly.

"Then let's go pay for this stuff," said Seung. She led Nat back toward the front of the store. "After we finish shopping, what do you want to do?"

Nat shifted the clothes in their arms. "Can I just wander around for a bit? On my own?"

Seung gave Nat a sideways look and nodded slowly. "Sure," she said, sounding just as hesitant as she looked. "I don't see why not."

"Great," said Nat. They headed toward the cash register.

They had twelve hours until they needed to give Giovanni an answer. That was plenty enough time to scope out the city. And maybe enough time to see just how much the cuffs were failing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, questions, concerns, and constructive criticisms are all more than welcome!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr! [Main Blog](http://anipendragon.tumblr.com/) [The Metahuman Initiative Blog](https://themetahumaninitiative.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> For more information about the world of TMI, please check out [the official TMI blog.](https://themetahumaninitiative.tumblr.com/) Or, if you want to check out my main blog, you can find that [here.](http://anipendragon.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Comments, constructive criticisms, and curiosities are welcome. I hope you all enjoyed the story, and look forward to seeing you again soon!


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